Ballet class..

On Sunday I travelled into London, with my dance teacher, and 3 other pupils from the school aswell as me. We had all brought new leotards so we would look presentable, and made sure our pointe shoes and ballet tights where fresh! We met at 9 o'clock, and then set off. The class started at 10.30 and it was 2 hours long so by the end of the day I was exaughsted. In total there where 8 girls dancing, and then all the teachers would sit and take notes. It was taught by Miss Fish who is an amazing teacher with the way she teaches moves, and notices things. We started off with basic warm ups such as like walking around the room and running around the rooms going through our feet to make sure they where warm before we put our pointe shoes on. We then went over to the ballet bar and just had a simple warm up doing the usual stuff to get you ready for a ballet class.

After around a 30 minuet warm up it was time we put on our pointe shoes. We then just did simple things to warm our shoe up, and once we was ready we started the pointe class. It was very simple but so hard and we spent ages on the bar and talking about how each of our feet moved etc for the teachers to see. The exercises we where doing gradually got harder and harder as the class went on and we then moved into the centre of the room, and did stuff from there. I found this hard but I kept myself strong so I wouldnt fall off as we where being rushed so we felt the pressure was on! Miss Fish then gave a talk to the teachers and students which was very good to listen to as she gave us such good advise!

After this we had a christmas buffet full of yummy foods and drinks! We then set off home and had a peaceful quiet journey as we where all so tired, and just wanted to relax.

Go Grease Lightning..

On Sunday I went into London with my sister to see Grease. Every year my nan takes me, my sister and all of my cousins to a westend performance. We went to the afternoon performance and afterwards we went out for dinner to an Italian resteraunt. The performance was AMAZING, the dancing was great so energetic and they would never stop moveing! The acting and singing aswell was so amazing, I just wanted to get on the stage and join in. There costumes and scenary really set the atmosphere for Grease. There voices where so powerful and strong, aswell as the acting made me really feel like I was invloved in the performance.

My favourite charecter was one of the backing dancers as he was such an amazing dancer, and he put so much energy into his moves I couldnt keep my eye off of him! My favourite scene was the car scene as it was so well done, and they put so much effort into what they where doing! The car looked real and to get that scene like the film was so hard so I didnt think they would be able to pull it off but they did! Before I went I didnt think they would be able to match the theatre performance to the film, but although they where so so different they where both so well done! I would happily watch it again, as there where proberly so many things that I didnt see. It also is great fun to watch and really puts you in a good mood!

T4 stars 2010!

On the 21st November I went up to London to Earls Court with Charlotte, Alice and Harley to go and watch T4 stars. It was amazing, we arrived at around 9 o'clock and arrived to see a MASSIVE que. Which we joined and stood at standstill unill 11 o'clock when they opened the doors for the event to start. Amazing acts where performing such as Tinie Tempah, Pixie Lott, Olly Murs, Game Over, Ndubz, The Saturdays, Professor Green, JLS, The Wanted The Script, Example, Alexandra Burke, Jason Durulo and many more fantastic stars! It was amazing. We walked around the venue as the actual concert didnt started until 2 o'clock, and great things where going on for example a massive slide, celeb disco, and many more fun things. When the event started we where on our feet non stop, dancing and singing all night! I didnt want it to stop as I was having so so so much fun.

I didnt have a favourite as they where all great in their own ways. The inbetweeners where there aswell as Tom Dailey and Gok Gwan. We where given glow sticks which we waved around when the performers where on stage! The acts really got the audience involved everyone looked as if they just wanted to jump onto the stage. I would happily go next year.

Lights, camera, action..

We are putting together a performance includeing all of the btec performing arts students plus some special guests. This is are first week of organising our performance which we will be performing on December 10th to show our progress and achivements we have made this year so far, it is great fun! We have split the class to do different jobs and be incharge of different things, me and Kelly have been assigned the job of creating the programme for the evening. We are including our Heartbeat dance, Ramalama, DV8 group and duo dances, some people are also showing their GCSE dance pieces, and ontop of all this we have some special guests performing in our talent packed evening! Over the last 2 weeks of our btec performing arts lessons we have been working on our performances and the organisations of the evening!

For our costume construction lessons we have been working very hard making our rock 'n' roll costumes, we have created two mood boards, that include our design ideas, swatches of denim and tartan, Vivienne Westwood tartan and finally the history of denim and tartan. These mood boards are going to be set up in the hall in a gallery style layout, so before our performance starts the guests can have a look of the work we have been doing. Tp the left is an image of one of my mood boards.

Aswell as focussing on the writen and drawing part of costume construction, we have also started on actually making our skirt. The materials we used where denim, tartan and to add a funky rock chick feel we will be attaching chains, and accesories to the skirt. To make the skirt we  had to cut the legs off of the pair of jeans we have collected leaving only the top bit of jeans then attach the side rim of the jeans to the bottem of the skirt making it look perfessional. Once we had done this we used a glue gun to stick in a pleated way the tartan to the bottem of the skirt. It sounds complicated but it was easy once you got the hang of it, it was also great fun and i really enjoyed myself whilst i was making it! Here is an image of my skirt not quite completed but almost there!

Last week in btec performing arts..

Last week in Btec Performing arts, most of our lessons were costume construction. We are focussing on two main fabrics one being denim and the other being tartan. Following our new project (createing a rock and roll, funky outfit) we had models that Miss Hearne gave us with these we traced them and created are own funky outfits, the models looked very real modeling our own design of punky clothes. Our aim was to create two which I completed. And once we had done two we had to paint them with waterpaint, which i found very hard as finding the tone for skin colour was very difficult! I also struggled with drawing and painting tartan, as it had to be so detailed. I managed to complete two so I had time to on the sides of my model on the white sheet of paper add samples of denim and tartan, the end result is going to look great!

In out dance lessons, we split the class into two different groups, I am in a group with Kelly, Alice, Shannon, Katie and danielle. We have created a dance that had a stoary behind it, and our choice was rasicm. Me Alice and Kelly are more contenporary based, where as Shannon Katie and Danielle are more Hip Hop this creates a difference between the two styles of dancing, so it will show two different cultures. Me Kelly and Alice are the people that are being racist so throughout the dance we are being poweful over the other three. Our dancing had a through requirements throughtout it, so there where a few things we had to include into our dance. Our dance is pretty much finished. But next lesson we will be cleaning and perfecting it, so it will hopefully look great. I really enjoyed doing this task and thought it was great fun!

half term

During the half term, we had a break from all the dancing. But Miss Dolan and Miss Hearne both set us some work to keep us active. Earlier on in the year we were set an 8 month task where we had to focus on dance styles research them, interview people, do different style dance classes etc. So Miss Dolan could make sure we had made a start we had to create a plan of the task and what we were going to include.

For the work Miss Hearne set us, as we are focussing on rock chick funky clothing we had to research Vivienne Westwood’s tartan collection and collect images off Google. I found this very interesting as I love Vivienne Westwood and her clothing so looking at tartan was great fun for me!

As I love dancing, and can never sit still, I went up to London to pineapple studios for a day in the half term with Kelly. It was great fun; this wasn’t my first time going to pineapple as I went three times in the summer and once this half term doing a variety of different style dancing. I am going to use this for my 8month project as evidence, its a comercial style dance we did but could also be classes as jazz. We got the train up and walked round Covent Garden for a while, as it’s not often I go into London. We did an R'n'B Jazz class with Andrew Stone it was great fun, but took up a lot of energy as the warm up was very intense as well as the dance. The style of dance was different to what we are used to, so doing this dance class was a way of learning new things to, it was similar to sorts of things you see on music channels. But it was very exiting to be dancing in pineapple studios as it is very well known and something you see on television.

Below are images of Kelly and I after our dance class-

Last week!

This week we focussed mainly on are costume construction. We have come to an end of the historical costume design, and are now studying the theme of punk, and are costumes are going to be very trendy and cool basing them on the performance We will rock you! I can’t wait, as We rock you is such a funky enjoyable performance, the costumes are also amazing! There not like normal shows they make a statement, and are all very different.

 

                                        
We were given homework which was to research the show and find funky pictures of the costumes from it. We also have been asked to bring in jeans to cut up and make funky which we will be using for our costumes as well as tartan. We have to also research the history behind the two materials (denim and tartan)

We didn’t have many dance lessons during this week but the ones we did have we were focussing on are paired work where we have to construct a routine including some movements and motions that where set like 'racing start' and 'sink to the floor' every movement we did we had to be touching through the whole routine. It’s similar to DV8 very physical, and requires a lot of energy. Every movement has to flow, and it is all based around an object, similar to Enter Achilles where they used an object in most of the dancers like the beer and the ball. I am partnered with Kelly and we have created and tried many cool lifts and rolls!

DV8 presentation

Ask miss dolan how to load microsoft power point onto here.

The fourth week to Btec Performing Arts...

These four weeks have gone so fast! Feels like only yesterday we were sitting in the drama studio talking about the introduction to the course..
I am so happy I picked the course as I’m loving in and can’t wait until we put our big performance this term together it will be so much fun, and so interesting to watch because there will be so many different things involved.

In Btec this week we continued to look at DV8. We started doing workshops based along the lines of the company, and the idea was to make all are moments flow; we had this idea because the leader of DV8 Lloyd Newson uses that in all of his dancing. We had a task this week of finding away to travel across the room in a group. The first lesson of this task we got into two's but as there was an odd number I was with Kelly and Laura Anne so it made it that little bit harder for us, but as the lesson went on it got easier and easier this was because instead of setting what we were going to do we just saw how our bodies took us. This was a very hard task; therefore I think Lloyd Newson must be very clever in his choreography to produce such beautiful work. His way of dancing is very unique and unusual to what we have done before.

The next lesson we started thinking of doing the same thing in bigger groups. We got put into groups of six and this suddenly got A LOT harder. Having to move in a line 3 moving at a time across the room. But yet again as the lesson got on we improved my using each other and working as team, Newsons work requires a lot of team work too! I can’t wait to carry on learning about DV8 as I’m not so good at it yet but it is a new fun style that I am really enjoying so far! Miss Dolan also set us a task that is due in on Friday i have done a presentation, to present to the class on DV8 and so far learning about them is almost as fun as learning about their movements.

In the costume design this week the first lesson we created strips of colours that we got from magazines based on the colours we are using on are historical costume. We haven’t looked into the costumes its self into as much depth as we have the colours!  We have to do a lot of research into styles, colours and patterns that will fit with the historical theme Miss Hearne is focussing on. I managed to complete two stripes of gold colours and pink colours; this was a difficult task as of course you would want to pick the best section for your colours. I had a lot of fun whilst doing this though, and as I was absent for the other lesson of costume design we did as i was ill, I of course can’t explain what we did, but I will catch up on that next lesson. I also can’t wait to put are colour mood boards together as so far they are all looking great! We will eventually have one for each of our colours! My work has really improved over the course... And think both the dancing and creative side to Btec performing arts is great fun.

This week in performing arts..

We developed are heartbeat dance, and finished it. We then put ourselves into groups, i was with Kelly and Alice, and as the task we are doing is DV8 which is physical theatre and emotions, we had to add emotions to are heartbeat dance. Me, Kelly and Alice thought about an effective theme we could go with. We chose parents divorcing, i was the child Kelly was the dad and Alice was the mum. We showed this in are dancing as the mum and dad slowly split apart, and added more aggression to each other as the dance went on, they also comforted the child, and fought over her. We also showed that the only thing keeping the mum and dad together was the child.

Everyone’s situations where mostly to do with heartbreaks, this is mainly because of the song, and lyrics. This also meant the choreography would go too. Miss Dolan recorded us in progress, and once we had completed the dance she recorded it, here is a video of us talking about adding emotion into are dance-



Here is a video of are whole dance, with the added emotion and stoary in it, are theme is around a young girl whos parents are going through a divorce-



We were set our next assignment this week. And as I said above it is to do with he physical theatre group DV8. We have to research the project in depth. And will be focussing on many chorographers especially Lloyd New son, just like are heart beat dance, his choreography always shows emotion as well as meaning and contains a story. Which each of his dancers he tries to get a message across, this is why we did a lot of drama in are dancing this week.

In costume design this week, we started on our mood boards. And where given magazines to cut images of the colours we are going to be using for our historic costumes, and we arranged them onto paper, to fit in a fashionable and well presented way.

Next week we are going to be focussing on more of the physical theatre side to DV8, which is going to be a lot of hard work and fun! I am also excited as I will be helping out at the Rock challenge auditions next week teaching the audition dance to the students, this will also be a lot of fun.

Second week to btec performing arts

Are second week of Btec performing arts was very different to are first, as we did many different types of activities. I enjoyed this week as much as I did the week before and yet again I feel I have already learnt and achieved so much.

Monday 13th September-
On Monday we had a lesson with Miss Dolan, and got set are first assignment for the course, assignment C14-development of dance. We sat in a group and spoke about the task, it sounds very hard but I’m sure when I set my mind to it, it will turn out well. This project is set for an 8 month time period, but we are also aloud to do some of it in lessons.

Tuesday 14th September-
Tuesday are first performing arts lesson of the course. We got changed into are dance clothes, and then went in the hall to start. Miss Dolan took a warm up, so we were warm and stretched out before dancing; this is so there is less chance for an injury. Miss Dolan had prepared a really nice contemporary dance to a song called Heartbeat. She taught the dance then we went through it a few times to the music. Here is a video of the whole group doing the dance to the song 'Heartbeat'-



I really enjoyed doing this and I had a lot of fun. Once we had finished Miss Dolan took a cool down so we wouldn’t have sore muscles the next day, here is a picture of us cooling down-

Wednesday 15th September-
On Wednesday we had a lesson with Miss Hearne who is in charge of the costume design part of Btec Performing Arts. In this lesson we handed in the homework, and she gave us 3 more tasks to do. We had already chosen are colours that we want to include for are Historical costume; I had chose pink, white, and gold. We had to get a coloured pallet including the colours we had chosen and then we went through different shades of the colours we wanted to use. I thought this was good fun, and good practise as it made me think about colours in a more experienced way.

Thursday 16th September-
Today we had our second practical lesson with Miss Dolan, and we got changed and straight into are warm up as there was no time to waste. We went over the dance and practised it a few more times to the music, and then Miss Dolan taught us the ending of the dance. I thought it was really good fun, and was a challenge at times but when we got the hang of it we all managed it and i think it looked very good as a group. At the end of the lesson we spoke about what we will be doing in are next practical lesson, and I can’t wait to learn the next dance.

My induction week to BTEC performing arts!

I have really enjoyed are induction week to BTEC performing arts, and have already learnt so much in such a short space of time, and can already tell I am going to have a lot of fun this year. Here is a time table of what I have done this week-

Monday 6th September-
Introduction to the course, and we were given are handbooks, told are expectations of the two year course and the outcomes. We also got given a sheet of paper explaining all are assignments, when they are being given and need to be handed in and what we have to do for each of them. At the end of are lesson we had a question and answer session, where we asked questions about the course and got to know it a bit better.

Tuesday 7th September-
We had a double lesson on Tuesday one with Mrs Hearne and one with Miss Dolan. In Mrs Hearne’s class we learnt about costume design and what colours suit what, we also picked are colours that we are going to be using for are historical costume. In Miss Dolans lesson we were in a computer room, we set up are blog for are performing arts diary log.

Wednesday 8th September-
We were in the media room for this, and for this lesson we learnt how to make a soundtrack which i thought was very fun but at the same time challenging. We did an introduction to mixing soundtracks/music, and learnt how to understand how to pick music for performances. I was in a group with Alice, Danielle and Ellie, our first copy didn’t go so well but then we started getting the hang of it and improved it slightly, with the help of Miss Ship. I would definitely love to do this again!

This week i enjoyed learning how to mix the soundtrack the most as I thought it was a lot of fun, although i also thought this was the most challenging thing of the week as well! I enjoyed everything I have done this week as there has been such a variety of things, and I have learnt so much!